Career The "Goal a Mile" challenge goes to Italy - 30 seasons done!

[samhardy]

Serie C is where it's at anyway. Great read so as as usual.

[Mr Tree]

Great to see so many of you appreciate the last update - thanks @Titjes @Lord Danish @BatiGoal @Foxy @smoggy90 and @samhardy!

I was aiming for two a week but I need to bang out a bonus edition as I'm losing track now, I'm a good three seasons ahead in real life!

 

Season Seven

The squad had started to come together pretty quickly in my first season at Mantova, so I was confident that with a few additions, we could have a good season...

The cup started well:

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But that was quickly over and done with:

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The league started out pretty decently too:

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When I decided to leave.

Montaperto had earned me 39 miles overall:

And that pace and finishing can hopefully take him far:

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But it was time for me to move on...

To the Stadium Sandro Cabassi:

And which team plays there?

Well guessed if you got that! Yes the beautiful city of Carpi, which I'm reliably (ish) informed boasts the 3rd-largest town square in Italy, and it used to be the finishing point of the annual Italian Marathon.

Their team has played many seasons in Italy's lower reaches, but they actually had the most glorious period in the last decade, winning Serie B for the first time in their history in 2015. Their first ever visit to Serie A lasted only one season, and last season (2018-19) in real life saw them fall back through Serie B, dropping into Serie C again.

As ever, I forgot to get a screenshot of the league table when I arrived, but after three games (won one lost one drew one) it looked like this - not too pretty:

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My new striker, Christian Cassano, managed to contribute one missed penalty in those three games:

And then this happened:

I had a choice to make - do I change my striker or wait for him to get back?

I assume (this is fairly common sense and laborious, hence @Ashez I think/hope not bogging down the original challenge rules by waffling on about it) that you are not bound to a striker once selected - it can sink you if they get bought, injured, unsettled, etc etc.

So I think you're alright to change your striker, but you have to "commit" to your man - you can't keep going back and forward based on who's doing better, etc. 

So if for some reason you have to change, I think any goals from Striker 1 are "in the bank" (so you can still move however many miles he earned you), but Striker 2 starts on zero obv.

There are harsher ways of interpreting the rules - you're welcome to try an Xtreme Goal a Mile challenge - but this is the way I'm doing it

Fortunately I had a good alternative option - Cristian Carletti, who actually plays for them at the moment in real life. I don't seem to have his profile screen, sorry, but he already had two goals when we started:

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And we seemed to hit it off:

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Meanwhile, this happened, to vindicate our decisive stance on dumping Cassano:

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A strong second half of the season got us into the playoffs:

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And we won a round or two, before falling to a higher seed after drawing again - although to be fair, even getting a draw was fairly remarkable:

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Our charge earned recognition for two of our wingers, the third-place guy being a loanee I got in January who started slow but ended up being awesome:

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Of course, third place is not necessarily good enough for the top 11 meanwhile ANOTHER of my strikers pops up

 

I earned recognition for my wonderful work:

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Carletti finished the season with 14 in 19 for me - think a couple of injuries prevented him playing more.

Meanwhile, the AI managed not to derail my old squad:

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And my first team are still surviving in the top flight:

 

NEXT TIME - another dramatic last-day finale! And hopefully possibly the debut of my new snazzy graphic to help us keep track of the journey...

Edited December 24, 2019 by Mr Tree

[Ian]

Going well so far. Hopefully next year you can either have a push for the title or get enough miles in to make another move. 

[broodje kip]

Great work shame that your player gets injured for 3 months and another 3 after that. Your second choice doesn’t look that bad either

[BatiGoal]

Interesting stuff again. One of the few career threads when I enter I've no idea where I am and what to expect 😃 raking up those meters. 

[Kanegan]

Nicely going along. KIU

[Mr Tree]

Many thanks @Ian @Lord Danish @BatiGoal and @Kanegan - season's greetings to you all, and everyone else of course!

Season Eight

This looks like a cracker of a world cup final:

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Germany win 5-3 after trailing 0-3 at half-time!

Meanwhile at home, I got a much-appreciated cash boost!

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Couldn't make much use of it, with not many willing to come, but I did what I could, including taking Belgian winger Musonda from my previous club. I used him in FMM19 too - good stats but frustrating previously, fantastic player at this level though.

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Unluckiest 8-1 defeat ever

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Luck didn't get any better in the Serie C Cup either, blowing a 3-0 half-time lead in injury time

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I battled back and forth with Spezia all season in the league, and...

...to be honest, I was just ploughing through games while hungover and childcaring. I knew I was near the end but didn't realise it was the last game. So not only was it pretty annoying that my keeper gave it to their striker in the 88th minute to cost me a win...

...but it was also irritating to find Spezia drew their game too

Of course I blew it in the playoffs

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To be honest, it's not a huge disaster - it was still a good season, and it's easier to rack up the goals against weaker opposition

So I took my accolades...

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...and the lads took theirs... Ricciulli is who I maybe should've switched my designated striker to last year, shows I'm not cheating he scored 40-plus in a belter of a season:

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Carletti did good enough though:

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So as promised, here's a summary of the journey so far:

 

NEXT TIME - can the boys bounce back from that blow?

Edited December 30, 2019 by Mr Tree

[BatiGoal]

You're right it's probably better to remain in the league you're at but still hurts to miss out on a league title in that fashion. What matters tho is you're making fine progress. Keep it up, Tree.

[Paul186]

Just caught up with career, great read so far looks like the lower divisions will be better for scoring goals as serie A is a tough league to score in, Keep up the good work Tree.

[Mr Tree]

Many thanks for the wise words @BatiGoal! And good to hear from you @Paul186- was wondering where you were!

Season Nine

I tightened the squad up a little, and even sold my keeper and striker in January cos I had enough in reserve and I didn't want to stand in the way of their big moves to Sochaux and Aberdeen...Eros was a great RB signing for me, and Rasmus a quality CB. Donzelli should've been an awesome winger but slipped a disc and was never the same

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Swiftly out of the cup. Looking at this now, I see Rolando has been terrorising me for years!

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But yeah we were rolling in the league...

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A couple of imperious runs had me storming clear. I remember well the commute that brought the three games in a row in October where I conceded three in each (but still got 7 points). I worked on upgrading the defence and then didn't concede a league goal in January or February

Ousted in the Serie C Cup on away goals though

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Got my revenge a few weeks later in the league!

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And that sealed the league with five games to go:

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Final table:

Alas, lost out on the overall Serie C championship after an epic collapse:

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But we dominated the awards in our league:

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Carletti took top scorer, with his two partners (from the first half and second half of the season) doing well too.

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Btw Brugnara was a youth I sold from Alto Adige...

So overall, Carletti did well, moving on to 71 goal-miles in total:

A look at his profile after a couple of seasons together:

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And a quick walk down memory lane - both my former teams had seasons to forget - Alto Adige did survive, at least:

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Seems Simone's had a rough couple of years without me:

Poor Mantova came straight back down without the Tree magic

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Probably shouldn't have sold Montaperto... Good money for Vitesse...

 

NEXT TIME - how will Carpi and Carletti get on in Serie B? Is another unlikely promotion on the cards?!

Edited December 30, 2019 by Mr Tree

[Thepremiermanager]

Hey Mr Tree, 

Just read through and enjoying the journey. 

Always nice to experience different teams and I've always preferred lower league management. 

Keep up the good work. 

[Paul186]

Another great season, but you don't want too much success and get back in the dreaded Serie A

[Mr Tree]

Cheers @Thepremiermanager and @Paul186- much appreciated!

Season Ten

We made a few solid signings and progressed well, even having a bit of a cup run with a nice scalp:

We beat Parma away too before falling to Napoli:

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Carletti generally struggled to make the step up, but he had his moments:

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We were sitting in a nice position with 11 games to go...

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When I heard the sirens calling for me again...

So I had to leave Carletti looking like this:

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...having notched me 83 miles overall:

Enough to cover the trip to the Stadio Marcello Melani:

Home of...

Tuscany beckons! Of the city Pistoia itself, Wikipedia mentions: "Although not visited as much as other cities in Tuscany, Pistoia presents a well-preserved and charming medieval city inside the old walls." It looks nice enough. As for the team, since they dipped into Serie A for a year 1980-81, they haven't returned and indeed have only had two brief spells in Serie B in the meantime. They can count Massimiliano Allegri and Marcello Lippi as former players, while Lippi also had a spell as manager. More recently, Andrea Barzagli played a few games there early in his career.

Of course all this upheaval meant I needed a new hero, and Dario here seemed a likely lad:

I always seem to miss a vital screenshot, and this time it was their league standing when I arrived. I think they were 6th or 7th. We bumbled along, with Dario doing well for me:

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We ended up getting up to 4th...

And Dario carried on having fun in the playoffs:

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We made it through to the final, and...

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Smashed it!

So Dario ended up like this...

But er... That's useless, considering I seemed to miss the shot of how many goals he had when I arrived Fortunately I noticed, so I went back and checked the dates -

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I arrived on March 8th, per earlier screenshots:

So that Fermana game was his first game with me, so the Form screen shows all our games together:

That's 21 goals from 16 games - lovely stuff

He ended the season looking like this:

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And my manager profile, a third of the way through the career:

I'll do an updated journey graphic next time... Because you never know what may change........

 

NEXT TIME - back to Serie B, but for how long?

Edited December 30, 2019 by Mr Tree

[Paul186]

Another season and a move south, keep up the scoring

[FuddledFox]

I notice on Google Maps you have it set as the walking distance so I’m interested to know if you are doing this whole journey down Italy on foot or will some motorised transport feature as well?

[BatiGoal]

Great journey. Enjoying the read. Question tho, how's the Italian wine? 

[Mr Tree]

7 hours ago, Foxy said:

I notice on Google Maps you have it set as the walking distance so I’m interested to know if you are doing this whole journey down Italy on foot or will some motorised transport feature as well?

All on foot, it's the only way! Yeah it's the best way to measure the distances, seeing as there's no "as the crow flies" option on any easy app I know. Driving distances could have to put up with silly diversions etc. Actually I've been surprised by how often the walks are not direct! I guess they have to go around hills/mountains, etc...

5 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Great journey. Enjoying the read. Question tho, how's the Italian wine? 

Alas I know precious little - I do remember dealing with an Italian businessman once upon a time and one Friday afternoon, he said forget the meeting, let's celebrate la dolce vita, offering me some cheese and wine. Shrug yeah whatever. It was divine, man! Those Italians know what they're doing!

Next update will be up tomorrow or Tuesday, probably

[Mr Tree]

Season Eleven

I haven't wanted to be hard and fast with rules, but I have had a couple of general approaches to moving - I will always stay at a club for the rest of the season once I move, and I'm generally trying to look for "efficient" moves - I don't want to score 70 goals to move 50 miles, I'd rather have those numbers as close as possible.

Also, when every new season starts, there are a load of new options - clubs being promoted into Serie C who need a manager. I don't always remember to check them, but this time I got reminded... in the nick of time...

Yes it's off to the luxurious Stadio Libero Masini...

For another change of colour:

Yes, the unpronounceable Tuttocuoio! They do not have the storied history of some of my previous clubs, only getting promoted to Serie C for the first time ever in 2013. Their emblem depicts a hare jumping over a river, apparently - no mention that I could find (in a very very casual look) of what on earth that is under the bridge, though!

They appear never to have had any famous players, despite their Wikipedia page mischievously claiming Dani Carvajal plays or played for them: https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categoria:Calciatori_dell'A.C._Tuttocuoio_1957

They are based near the town of San Miniato, which every year hosts a festival for searching for the prestigious white truffle that grows in the area.

They use the larger Libero Masini stadium for Serie C games, and it's listed as their current home on Wikipedia in English, although it seems upon further review they've moved back to their smaller home, slightly further away, following real-life relegation. Apologies for this but I think I just about get away with it

I went through the usual welcome messages - until it said "you have no staff", which was a new one!

I went through the whole season without a physio as noone wanted to join me!

I set about recruiting a load of freebies and ne'er-do-wells, with this dude assuming the mantle as my new designated striker:

It started fantastically with a 97th minute penalty eliminating us from the Serie C Cup!

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But Perez was firing:

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I remember that I had 7 losses from the first 14 games and was hovering around relegation... And I don't think I changed much, but maybe the schedule got nicer and things started to click:

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Molina was a monster, a 17yo RB destined for big things. Funny seeing the goalkeeper Gemmi there now, I didn't know him then but he's been my loan keeper the next couple of seasons

I could have got third on the last day, but had to settle for sixth:

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No big problem, as that can potentially mean loads of lovely playoff games! We didn't even need Perez's goals to climb out of a 6-3 hole and take a stunning aggregate win in the playoff quarter-finals:

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On to the semis and... My old friends!

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Noone I recognise from my time there... But they were too good for me...

They went on to seal the deal:

As ever, no big problem to miss out, as it likely means more goals for my striker next year.

I was given awards, of course...

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And Perez and loanee Beretta took the top two player trophies:

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Of course, the fact that he was the best player doesn't mean he was the best striker...?!

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Perez ended up with a cracking 35 goals for the season:

And his attributes had gone up nicely too... But his value has soared worryingly, especially as he has a release clause (unavoidable) and isn't interested now in discussing a new contract...

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A quick recap and look at the journey so far:

 

NEXT TIME - can we make a run at the title? And can we hang on to Luciano?

Edited January 2, 2020 by Mr Tree

[Paul186]

Another great season, and great to spend another season in serie C so should be lots more goals.

[Ian]

Can’t believe they had no staff when you took over 😂. Anyway, it’s going well and Italy looks like a good nation for this and seems more fun to play than Germany would’ve been that I’d voted for. 

[Kanegan]

Lovely progress so far mate. KIU

[smoggy90]

Making great progress mate and some great sounding clubs you have managed. Italy seems a good choice for this career. 

[Mr Tree]

Many thanks @Paul186, @Kanegan and @smoggy90! And @Ian too of course - it's certainly gonna be a challenge to complete Italy, Germany would have been better in that regard, but at least Italy is thin! Germany is relatively "fat" so it could have been tricky jumping around to go through the country. And yeah Italy's third tier is pretty rich so it's interesting there

 

Season Twelve

First off, ladies and jellyspoons, I bet you did not think this would be the World Cup final in 10.5yrs time!

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And yes Italy hosted - "we" got to the semis before Chile ended our dreams...

Back in Tuttocuoio, our worry was keeping Luciano. We held on nervously all summer - any click on "Continue" could bring the bad news limiting our possible progress in the short-term.

Fortunately, despite Luciano starting the season well, no-one higher up was tempted...

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So we settled into a three-month run of racking up the miles...

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But it was soon confirmed that the end was nigh...

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(to remind you - he had a release clause, and his good form had made it impossible for me to renegotiate his contract, so i was screwed here)

We kept an eye on the job market, and eventually, with Luciano on 53 miles...

We found a new home... And funnily enough, it turned out that our last game at Tuttocuoio was a chance for me to have a look around and take my final interview for the new job...

So of course, that damn classic Ultravox song has been in my head the last few days....

That's a bit more like it, after a few years of playing in glorified garden sheds!

While they are a bit more well-known, they actually only had their first ever Serie A appearance in 2003 - and then they folded and re-formed (as it seems everyone does in Italy!) in 2014. They can count Lippi and Conte among their former managers (both had a season each). The city itself is a jewel in the Italian crown, with the historic centre named by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. 

So the facilities and stadium are a clear step up from where we were, although funnily enough i'd managed to get little Tuttocuoio ahead in the league table

Of course, a new club means a new hero - and they had a cracker waiting for me!

Not only did i remember to snap the league table at the time of the move, I also captured how many goals Gasperini had already scored!!

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Meanwhile Tuttocuoio went left-field with their appointment to replace me!!!

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?!?!

 

Another of my former strikers made the news...

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As you could see above, the league table was mega-tight, so of course a sprinkle of my managerial mastery saw Siena fly up to contention for the top spot. Until we started bottling it down the stretch, with this crushing defeat at my old club emblematic of our collapse:

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I was at home to Ternana on the last day, but we couldn't even keep it close enough to make that dramatic

And inevitably, we bottled the playoffs

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But of course, that means another year for young Orlando to take advantage of Serie C defences, so no disaster!

He ended up notching 17 goals for me:

And here's his stats by the end of the year, showing that he's become a fan-favourite too...

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He was starting to attract interest, but with a bit more financial oomph behind me (check the difference in wages below and above!), I was able to fend them off:

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My managerial profile after 12 years:

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And this worked out quite nicely, if not necessarily accurate!

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NEXT TIME - we've followed up a couple of "nearly" seasons by smashing the league next time around so far, so can we see a repeat here? And if so, surely that means Orlando will be in the goals......

Edited January 6, 2020 by Mr Tree

[Paul186]

Another great season and a good switch and another season in Serie C, keep up the good work.

[BatiGoal]

On 30/12/2019 at 23:52, Mr Tree said:

NEXT TIME - can we make a run at the title? And can we hang on to Luciano?

Double 'No' let's start the year with major drama 😂 

[BatiGoal]

Oops, falling behind here. Looks like I missed an update. I used to be totally in love with Sabatini 😍

Some location for a stadium btw 👍 keep up the travels! 

[Mr Tree]

13 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

Double 'No' let's start the year with major drama 😂 

 it was a double no, but not a dramatic one!

[zila90]

Great Italian save. I'm looking forward to the next Miles... 👉

[Mr Tree]

Many thanks @Paul186 @BatiGoal and @zila90!

Season Thirteen

Yeah I smashed it, of course - I wasn't far off last time and I had the financial backing to plug the gaps in the team, so it wasn't close. Not quite as convincing as with Carpi, but still pretty damn good.

Orlando was on fire at the start:

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I suffered two defeats, but the effort of taking me down seemed to send both clubs into a tailspin, which you love to see

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Then this came along

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BUT fortunately it was more like six weeks, three weeks of which were covered by the Christmas break

And he was still scorching hot when he came back:

So we wrapped up the title by the end of March:

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Final table:

But we conceded four in each Super Cup game in a slightly worrying precursor for next season's Serie B:

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Fortunately Orlando scored 4 of our 5 goals so it wasn't a total waste of time.

We did the double too, winning the Serie C Cup for the first time:

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An "almost impossible" feat apparently:

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And this was an odd message (although maybe the cup win earns you a playoff bye, but still...)

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So of course, I was named Champion of the World:

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And Orlando took the player prize, with winger Abad coming in 3rd:

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This is getting buggy though - hardly the first example I've shown, but how does the actual Player of the Year not get in the Team of the Year

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Anyway, you might've spotted above, he finished on 41, taking us up to 58 goal-miles overall:

Here's how he looked by the end of the year:

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And me:

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Why sign an Italian when you can, not?

 

NEXT TIME - how will Orlando handle the step up? Is it time to hit the road again?

Edited January 6, 2020 by Mr Tree

[Mr Tree]

Season Fourteen

While there was some trepidation at the task ahead, Orlando showed no fear

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However, we got our moe illustrious neighbours in the cup:

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So obviously, that didn't end (or start) well:

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Funny to see their stadium is named after the same fella as mine (not a shared ground either). They love naming stadia after people in Italy! It's become my best way of finding them on Google maps, search for the person rather than the club name...

This popped up and I saw that one of my old boys was doing alright for himself:

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My current boy was doing well too:

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And these crushing away wins probably give you a hint of what's coming....

Yes, yes I am.

Final table:

My award:

Only a couple of lads in the team of the year...

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This Duncan looks a superstar wonderkid btw (any idea who?). Played right-wing (inside forward) for me.

Orlando had a cracking season:

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Doesn't look that flash:

But a solid 40 goals, taking us up to 98 miles earned overall:

 

NEXT TIME - shall we stick around and have another crack at Serie A? Or is a better offer going to come up?

Edited January 9, 2020 by Mr Tree